Nintendo previously promoted the game through a series of developer blog posts that were so vague the names of the director and producer weren't even listed (many believe the producer is Mistwalker CEO Hironobu Sakaguchi, though). Nintendo kicked off its new promotional push today with... more blog posts! The first of seven, it seems.

The new post, titled "Companions," is about the game's party system. According to the post, your AI-controlled companions will do a whole lot of talking. They'll speak during dialogue sequences and event scenes, of course. But they'll also speak while on the move and during battles.

"Players will be surrounded in their comrades' conversations," writes the producer.

Artwork for the main characters and allies, shared today at the official site.Many RPGs have systems in place where characters converse while gameplay progresses. The Tales series, for instance, is famous for its "skit" system, where characters will engage in usually trivial conversation while you move about on the world map and in dungeons.

The Last Story seems like it could be taking this idea even further. Writes the director, "There exists drama even in battle."

One day, we'll hopefully get to see those drama-filled battles for ourselves.

We discussed The Last Story in the podcast this week so check that out, and we now have new Iwata Asks tidbits:

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This part of the interview began with a slightly unexpected question. Iwata asked Sakaguchi what he felt about working on a Wii game. "Can I answer truthfully?" responded Sakaguchi first.

After Iwata told him to be direct, Sakaguchi responded was that when he worked with HD platforms (Sakaguchi previously worked on Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey for Xbox 360), he placed a greater focus on such development areas as workflow and pipeline (pipeline referring here to placing graphics and motion data into the game). This is because, as with making a movie, by having a solid work pipeline in place, you can create a product with higher quality visuals.

"With the Wii, we took the approach of making a prototype first and investigating from there. So, compared to the hardware I've worked with until now, the creation process was completely different."

Iwata suggested that one could say that the Wii allowed them to use a creation process where they build up the game through experimentation. "There is that side to it," responded Sakaguchi. "To be honest, I personally feel that the HD visuals that are now the trend are still too much for a game world. You end up putting all your effort into preserving the quality of the visuals."

- Sakaguchi says that the graphics do not lose out to other hardware. They were able to push the visuals much more than he expected.

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Sakaguchi feels that The Last Story's visuals are close in beauty to a photograph. Rather than having everything be clear, the Wii gives the visuals the perfect balance for a photograph-like taste.

He also noted that the because the Wii is easy to program, they were able to work details into the game. He mentioned one example where the player switches from dark to light and the game's lighting adjusts like a real person's eyes would.

"Even if you compare the visuals to other hardware, there's no disadvantage what-so-ever," said Sakaguchi.

- Nintendo trashed one the original game scenario, calling it "no good". Apparently the world was extremely dark. The refocus really benefited the game.

- six player online component- activated through the “Raid Lobby”- access cooperative and competitive play mode- competitive lets you select your character and take on online opponents- co-op has you teaming up with online friends to fight a powerful monster- take control of Elza and your alliesAs usual for a Jump reveal, the details only- use a “paint” item to color your armor- General Trista: a knight who was once the highest ranking officer in the imperial army, currently traveling the world, in search of the connection between war and the devastation of the imperial main land, plays a major role in the story

- Sakaguchi and Matsumoto believe the game offers a lot of freedom when approaching situations- event scenes don’t have a fixed camera.- freely control the camera to a certain extent- this was done on purpose for those that watch recorded play-sessions via video sharing sites, which the dev team is hoping will inspire other players to try things a different way- game features a purposeful hand-held camera effect- Matsumoto joked that he would keep the camera continually focused on heroine Kanan- camera does not force a perspective during speaking scenes- treasure boxes and drop items are all random- for online play, you can customize the lines your character says during combat- dialog customization system originates from the sheer amount of voice in the game- expect to hear your allies’ voices while on the move and during battle- prior to a battle, the leader will give advice- during battle the leader will continually shout out orders- this also allows you to pick lines of dialog that make no sense when taken out of their context- Sakaguchi originally had staffers reading the lines of dialog, and wanted to keep those voices for online play. This was later decided against.- once again, online play features cooperative boss fights and competitive battle royal modes- both modes allow 6 players- Sakaguchi feels this offers a different feel from the main story, and he also hopes that people use the arena to show off their clothing.- battle system has a “chain” system where allies take turns striking an enemy, building up more and more damage- Matsumoto feels that experiencing this system with actual friends will increase the feeling of affinity.- ability to use other characters besides the main character when playing online co-op mode- mages take time to cast their magic- you may not be able to use other characters during online battle royal- The Last Story has story as one of its main pillars, as Sakaguchi feels this is important- Sakaguchi is hoping that the freedom will allow players some replayability- Sakaguchi feels that a strong story element can reach players of all types- Sakaguchi also believes that story helps teach the player the gameplay systems and controls- once a player learns those mechanics, they can better enjoy online play- Sakaguchi says that the best game is one where you get a second burst of flavor after biting into the gum the first time

I don't have time to put this up on the NintendoFuse home page, but thelaststory.com is owned by Nintendo of America. While that doesn't mean for sure it's coming, that's a nice sign. It was made back in February 2010 though, whereas with Xenoblade Chronicles, that entry was made a few days ago.

Something from 2010 is just making news today, before the JPN release of the game?

Well it's not like this was publicized in any way. I bet someone thought to check it after they found the Xenoblade listing, and so it was just now discovered. Either that, or people found out about it before but others didn't know so now it's brought up again.

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Tue Apr 05, 2011 8:47 pm

chuangya

Wrist Strap

Joined: Wed Apr 13, 2011 2:59 amPosts: 3

Re: The Last Story

Different from the mainland nobles, Arganon appears to have great ambitions. ...

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Wed Apr 13, 2011 3:09 am

jannypan

Wrist Strap

Joined: Wed May 25, 2011 1:51 amPosts: 2

Re: The Last Story

You're a little late to the party. I've known this for a few days, a bunch of people have.

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Wed May 25, 2011 1:54 am

Weave

Pikmin Chucker

Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2007 10:00 pmPosts: 1594Location: Boise, Idaho

Re: The Last Story

So I was just on Amazon and The Last Story was under my recommendations. Anyways, I guess it's set for a June release here. Anyone planning on picking it up? I don't know if I will, I was never a huge fan of Final Fantasy which is what people have been comparing The Last Story to. I guess if I really cared enough I could look up gameplay footage of the Japanese version seeing as how it has been out over there for a year or so now. I'm actually kind of surprised nobody has mentioned this.

It was brought up in the Nintendo Direct post, just doesn't seem to have revived this topic. I haven't gotten Xenoblade yet, and will have to see. This series interests me, but it's the time part and cost that is holding me back.

Happy to report that I "borrowed" it from the library. Excited to try it out finally. I was hoping for them to also have Xenoblade, but they do not. Must be because of that GameStop exclusivity with it.

They've had them for a while. DVDs too. I didn't know they had this specific game, but I'm glad they did. You can put in a request for some items and other libraries in the network will ship them to your local library. I get 2 weeks to play it, so it's better than blockbuster, as I didn't have to pay a cent for it.

I've learned about this as my wife works at 2 libraries, so she is able to put stuff on hold, check out and what not anything I want. I didn't know they had this one, so when I went to look for a DVD I wanted, I saw this game and immediately got it.

I'm wondering if I'm the only one that played this game... well, I'm happy to report I beat it this weekend. I had the game for 5 weeks (2 renewals) and returned it after I beat it. I did all 44 chapters, and some side quests. This game was a ton of fun and would recommend it to anyone that is a fan of RPGs. It's not terribly long. Keep in mind I have limited console time, especially Wii using the TV, so while I had it for 5 weeks, I only played it for about 12-15 days in that period. If anyone has any questions, I'll be glad to answer them, I won't be talking about this game on the podcast again.

I have this game I just haven't played through it yet all the way through; is all. I got to the part where your introduced to all of the characters and have to sneek up on some poor sods.. But yea as soon as I could save and quit I hadn't picked this game up since.

I have this game I just haven't played through it yet all the way through; is all. I got to the part where your introduced to all of the characters and have to sneek up on some poor sods.. But yea as soon as I could save and quit I hadn't picked this game up since.

It's an awesome game, I recommend you to try to continue it! I even got my buddy to play it and he usually stinks at games like this and he managed to beat it somehow.

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